Photo/Illutration Minimal mapo tofu (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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Shunsuke Inada is a big fan of “minimal cooking” and hopes it will prove to be his life’s work. His theme is to make dishes that taste great using only a few ingredients and simple steps.

These days, he reckons it’s easy to create dishes on a par with restaurant food by buying frozen meals or using “mentsuyu” seasoned soy sauce-based dipping sauces for noodles or ready-made combined seasonings. Yet Inada asks, “Aren’t you tired of eating dishes that taste standard even at home at a time when dining out is an easy option?” He fears that home cooking has reached the point where it is so good, it has conversely become dull.

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Shunsuke Inada (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

The chef recalled that when he was growing up in the Showa Era (1926-1989), meals cooked at home generally tasted different from dishes served at restaurants. The person cooking did not take any unnecessary steps and made good use of the flavors and ingredients available to offer tasty dishes that were pared down. “I think those tastes had value as food everywhere nowadays is pretty tasty,” he said.

Inada’s encounter with Indian cuisine was a revelation. Salt is a key ingredient, along with two or three spices. Stock, bouillon, or fermented seasonings are rarely used. “The more I got hooked, the more I was made aware of the simple good flavor. I was released from the spell that one must add different things to season the dishes,” he said.

Mapo tofu conjures up images of combined seasonings or various seasoning pastes. But Inada was inspired by what he read in a book that said the original mapo tofu dish was much simpler than those found today and came up with a recipe using only seasonings available at home.

“When you feel like it, you whip up mapo tofu in no time at all,” he says. Draining water from tofu or parboiling it is not necessary. Rather, the water flowing out of tofu clinches the good taste when combined with the rich flavor of grated pork and beef.

He says great care should be taken with the measurements because of the recipe’s simplicity. Inada recommends placing the frying pan on a digital scale and measuring the ingredients one by one as they are added. A typical scale can measure up to two kilograms.

Shunsuke Inada is a chef and restaurant producer born in Kagoshima Prefecture in 1970. He opened Erick South, a restaurant offering South Indian cuisine, in Tokyo in 2011. He has published books including “Minimaru ryori” (Minimal cooking) from Shibata Shoten.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main ingredients (Serve 2 to 3)

300 grams (1 block) firm tofu (momen type), 30 grams green onion (naganegi), 150 grams mixture of grated beef and pork (aibikiniku), 15 grams (3 cloves) garlic, 15 grams (about 1 Tbsp) oil, 2 to 6 grams (to taste) chili powder (ichimi togarashi), 100 ml water, 30 grams (little less than 2 Tbsp) soy sauce, 2 grams (1 tsp) black pepper, 1 gram (1 tsp) Sichuan pepper (if available)

1. Cut tofu into dices, chop green onion. Finely chop garlic.

2. Place frying pan on digital scale, add and measure grated meat, garlic, oil and chili powder. Place pan on medium heat and stir-fry until meat is cooked.

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Measure the ingredients in the frying pan. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

3. Add water, soy sauce and tofu, stir-fry and simmer until water content is reduced. Tofu cubes may lose their shape.

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Add tofu after the meat is cooked. (Photo by Atsuko Shimamura)

4. Add green onion, black pepper and, if available, Sichuan pepper and mix.

About 270 kcal and 1.6 grams salt per portion when serving three
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column

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